Norfolk Bounty

Pop Up Dining at The Brecks

Ben & Sarah 

Since we moved to the North Norfolk coast so many wonderful doors have opened to us. Yusuf is sous chef at the new and lovely Duck Inn at Stanhoe. The Duck has been open for 6 months now and has already forged an enormous following of locals and tourists alike. In this brief time husband and wife team Ben and Sarah Handley were also nominated and became finalists for the EDP Food & Drink awards 2013, an impressive accolade within five months of opening.

Two good men, Ben & Yusuf

It is no wonder though. Ben Handley has a wealth of experience, not just on the North Norfolk coast, from time spent working in Australia too. Ben uses a global approach to flavours, utilising the very best of Norfolk produce. Ben has cooked at some of North Norfolk's best restaurants and has spent time as a consultant chef to the lovely Dot Lloyd's business Briarfield's Hotel, raising it's profile and introducing modern cooking techniques which are still in place today, something Ben is very proud of.

Hand dived scallops, daikon & oyster leaf at The Duck

While Yusuf is cooking up some of Norfolk's finest food with Ben and the team, I have been doing a little digital marketing for The Duck, including one of my favourite pastimes food photography. You can take a look at my Instagram page here and the Ducks Instagram here.

Pop Up Dining

Liz Truss MP & John Vincent

We were invited by the very lovely Vanessa Scott from Strattons boutique hotel in Swaffam to run a pop up restaurant in her beautiful home as part of the Brecks food festival. We were joined by honoured guests John Vincent from LEON restaurants, who came to chat a bit about school dinners and the school dinner project with  Liz Truss MP for South West Norfolk. Our guests were a wonderfully diverse bunch of nuns, foodies and yoga teachers it was a fantastic night topped off by having much needed help from Maggie & Cat from CoCoes Cafe and the lovely owners of Ladywood Lodge who were amazing at washing up, even though their day jobs were SO much more impressive than that. Hugely grateful for everyones participation in what was a wonderful event.

As Norfolk has such amazing local artisan produce it is not difficult to find such wonders as the lovely Scotts Field Pork, wonderful free range pork from a small local producer who really cares about his large black pigs.  It was a joy to pick pears from Vanessa's trees for our tart tatin and use her hens eggs. Local in every sense of the word, in an industry where there are  unnecessary food miles and waste it was wonderful to use what is closest to us, and waste very little indeed. Something which is very close to my heart.

The Menu

Cheese & Tomato

Cheese & Tomato

Mackerel, roasted and ceviche with horseradish creme fraiche and lemon sorrel

Adobo chop & hock hash with fennel and basil aiolli

Pear tart tatin with cinnamon marscapone and fennel seeds

Fresh mint tea

The film crew from Leon TV filming pork chops..